The Hospitality industry is rapidly moving into the digital age enabling hospitality providers to track and store information about guests. Of particular importance is the information contained on a passport, driver's license, or ID card. Technology is also enabling the hospitality industry to utilize handheld devices for this application.
Hospitality providers generally collect this information at the time of checkin; however, at the present this can be a very time-consuming and labor intensive process. Market pressures and consumer expectations shaping the hospitality industry generally require information gathering at checkin to be streamlined, straightforward, not labor intensive, and fast.
These requirements are exacerbated because a guest's escort, who is helping the guest check-in, needs to carry the guest's luggage in one hand and small articles in the other. Further, holding identification document, such as a passport, open with one hand and taking a photograph with another has led to difficulties with getting a proper photographic duplication of the identification document without hands or fingers, with accurate image cropping, while simultaneously being clean and clear.
Solutions have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any complete solutions, and solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art. Thus there remains a considerable need for devices and methods that can provide a light functional system for digitizing information on identification documents.